James 1: 2 Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. 3 Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.4 But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing. (AMP)
Perhaps the most stressing situations to me are interpersonal conflict. The worst is when I'm caught in pitched battle between two people or parties and am derided by both sides. This is exactly the situation I found myself in for about 5 years in the late '90's. It took constant prayer just to get myself up and in the truck to go to work. The personal attacks included attacks on my faith as yet another example of being weak minded. It was hard to feel joy during this time. I decided at that point that the verse is one more focused on the intellectual exercise of perseverance. I was to focus on the fact that in the end God would win, I needed to be clearly on His side, and in the interim I was to endure with a positive witness for him. I don't think I was all that successful, in fact its the only time in my life that I had to go to mediation to solve a squabble.
Since that time, I went on to a senior leadership position at Eglin. One of the ring leaders when through a divorce, left government service, and moved out of the area. The other retired, got a high paying consulting job for a while, but is back in government service and we are actually collaborating on numerous high visibility initiatives. I'm not claiming wordly success because of anything I did, I just testify to God's faithfulness during what seemed like an endless time of trial. I testify to the songs that remind us "there may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning" and "great is thy faithfulness - morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, thy hand hath provided..."
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